CALICO FUDGEMAKING BROCHURE

Calico Cottage
FUDGE
PROGRAMME
www.calicocottage.co.uk/business
01353 741661

WHO ARE
CALICO
COTTAGE?
MONEY
MATTERS!
In 1989 Nigel Baker
started Calico Cottage in the UK, initially
importing mixes and fudgemaking machines (known as a kettle) from its namesake in the USA but very quickly moving
into manufacturing.
Whilst links to our American colleagues remain very strong, 26 years on Calico is an established British manufacturing
success story with year on year growth right through the recent recession. Every fudge kettle and every bag of fudge mix
is made in our factory in Cambridgeshire and the company is still 100% owned by the Baker family. Three generations of
the family work in the company to this day.
Twenty five years prior to Calico starting in Europe, an American gentleman by the name of Leonard Wurzel had a chain
of candy making stores within supermarkets in the USA. The supermarkets closed down leaving Leonard with leases to
pay but no customers. His business was nearly crushed under the pressure of hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt.
Rather than default on these debts, he started Calico Cottage, a company which has now grown to be the World's Largest
Provider of fudgemaking ingredients and equipment. Leonard paid every dollar back and his company is now run by his
sons from a state of the art facility on Long Island New York.
Calico in the USA helped us get started in Europe and gave us great support at a time when UK banks would not. We still
have close ties to Calico Cottage in America and swap knowledge and experiences on a daily basis. Whilst their flavours
may seem a bit odd at times (they would say the same about ours!), our American Partners' ethics and principles are
untouchable and we work to the same high standards here in Europe.
Calico is
NOT a
Franchise
Calico does not sell a franchise. In fact we can never
understand why anyone would pay a price premium for an
often relatively unknown confectionery franchise when, for
a fifth of the price, you can start making better quality,
beautiful looking, luxury fudge yourself and sell it under
your own name with no license fees, no royalties and much
higher margins. Don’t pay crazy money for something you
can do better yourself!
Even if you want to set up a sweet shop alongside your
fudge, Calico can give you plenty of advice and assistance
at no charge. We even stock 100 varieties of sweets.
The fudge which you make with our programme sells for
between £2.25/100g and £3.00/100g. It costs around
50p/100g to make.
If you are not VAT registered it’s worth noting that there’s
no VAT on the mix and so 50p/100g is all you pay.
With suitable promotions, you should achieve an average
sale of close to £6.

WILL
FUDGEMAKING
WORK FOR ME?
The only real way to tell this is to talk over your plans
with us. We will give you straight advice because the
last thing we want to do is sell a kettle and never sell
another case of mix to you. However, there are
certain characteristics which successful fudge retailers
all have in common:
GREAT LOCATION – Good passing trade with the
fudge display adjacent to the cash register.
GREAT DISPLAY - People buy with their eyes. If your
display is not attractive you will kill your profits dead.
FRIENDLY SALES STAFF – Success comes from visitors
enjoying their experience. Handing out small samples
with a smile and a welcome will pay dividends.
UPSELLING -You have an amazing display with fudge
that simply cannot be bought anywhere else so make
sure people are encouraged to buy more than one
flavour!
STAND OUT
“Why would I want to make fudge
when I can buy it in readymade?”
When we started back in the 1980’s there was only
one colour of fudge – brown. Since we introduced
the country to some new looks and flavours there
have been many attempts to imitate us with prepackaged
finished product.
We are inevitably flattered by this imitation but our
whole ethos is trying to help our customers to make
fudge that cannot be bought in a pack from every
gift shop, tourist attraction or garden centre so that
you are truly unique and memorable. We hope to
give you something that makes you totally different
from your competitors.
You can buy peanut butter fudge anywhere but you
can’t get a “Fully Loaded Fudge” oozing with toffee
pieces, soft caramel, marshmallows, Oreos and
peanut butter. That is what will make you different
and that is what will enable you to sell far more
fudge than any pre-packed option.
Our experience suggests that you can sell between
five and ten times the quantity of a pre-packed offer
by making your own fudge.

Three hours per week of fudgemaking
would equate to £30k of revenue or
£20k of profit per year.
In spite of this we still hear sites with great potential
dismiss fudgemaking without a second glance.
Enthusiasm is a key component for success. We want
to work with retailers who care passionately and
retailers who want to maximize their profits. So
before you disregard the idea altogether, visit our
website and have a look at our videos or play with
our profit calculator.
“IT SOUNDS LIKE HARD WORK”
From four base mixes you can make 400 varieties of
fudge. From start to finish it will take three hours to
make 30kg of fudge in up to 12 different flavours
with a retail value of £600. For much of those three
hours you can go away and do something else whilst
the fudge is left mixing. Does it still sound like hard
work?!
This table gives you an idea of how much money you
might make from a given number of sales per day.
There is obviously no such thing as an average
customer but sales of £25k per annum would be about
par for the course.
If you imagine a well located fudge display in your
store with a great looking range of flavours then just
ask yourself, how many sales per day you might make?
We have customers at both ends of the spectrum. Even
with just ten purchases per day you would recover your
investment in around six months.
We have assumed an average sale of 250g and a price of £2.50/100g –
these figures also allow for some typical promotions
THE START-UP KIT
We sell a start-up kit that enables you to make
150kg of fudge with a retail value of about £3200
plus VAT.
The kettle costs us £3400 to make and we deliver
it to you for £3500 plus VAT. With utensils,
flavourings, start up packaging and fudge mix you
will spend £4600 plus VAT. We also train you onsite
for two days at our cost. The contents of the start
up kit can be changed to suit your requirements.
Needless to say, if you’re not selling fudge mix,
we’re not making money. We both have a mutual
interest in getting you the highest possible return
on your investment.
Equally, we will tell you
upfront if we do not believe fudgemaking will
work for you.
At twenty sales per day it will take
less than 90 days to recover your
investment. We’ve even had people
recover it in just three days.
Fudge sells at typically £2.50/100g and
costs you around 50p/100g to make
including butter, flavourings and
delivery charges of about 2.5p/100g.
At a retail price of £2.50/100g you will
make £1.58/100g profit after VAT*.
Adding additional ingredients such as
nuts, dried fruit, marshmallows,
meringue pieces and toffee pieces
will change this price but not
dramatically.
*based on 2016 price data
This table gives you an idea of how much money
you might make from a given number of sales per
day.
There is obviously no such thing as an
average customer but sales of £20k per annum
would be about par for the course. It is easy for a
supplier to make great forecasts but nobody knows
your business better than you do.
If you imagine a well located fudge display in your
store with a great looking range of flavours then
just ask yourself, how many sales per day you
might make?
We have customers at both ends of the spectrum.
Even with just ten purchases per day you would
recover your investment in around six months.
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FUDGEMAKING IS
QUICK, EASY AND
PROFITABLE
ALL MIXES ARE GLUTEN FREE AND
SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS, WE
ALSO HAVE A RANGE OF NATURAL
COLOURS AND FLAVOURINGS
WHAT IS THIS GOING TO
COST ME?

WHAT WILL CALICO DO TO HELP?
We’ve talked about your potential profits and what makes a retailer successful at selling fudge. However, before you decide
to proceed we can send you our comprehensive set up guide and any additional materials you require. These documents
coupled with our online videos, contain all of the information that you need to locate and design your display, calculate
costs, develop signs and clarify any Health and Safety requirements. Deciding where best to position a fudge display and
negotiating space is something which potential new customers have found tricky in the past so if this is the case, please
don’t hesitate to call us and ask for us to visit your site as we would be delighted to discuss your plans and help you get
started.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
As soon as you’re ready to go with a great display in
the right location, Calico’s efforts focus on getting you
set up and trained correctly. We spend two days with
you and your team; the first is spent making fudge
and the second is spent retailing it. The first day is the
easier day but the second is critical and has to be done
with some live customers in your shop. Retraining is
also available for those of you with a high turnover
of staff. Once you are up and running, you can receive
continued support from Calico with seasonal ideas
and promotions so that your display never starts to
look tired. There’s a flavour for every time of the year
whether it’s colourful fruity flavours in the summer or
suitably festive flavours and decoration in the later
months. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.
Never forget that fudge is an impulse purchase so the
better it looks, the more tempting it becomes and the
more likely people are to come back! This could help
increase sales of your other lines and certainly
increases average spend per head so make sure that
your display is always looking fabulous!
THE CALICO COTTAGE WEBSITE
We have a comprehensive website designed to meet all of our
customers’ needs and offer a variety of online videos which
demonstrate everything covered in this brochure so please
don’t hesitate to have a good browse. If you go ahead with the
Calico Fudge Programme you will also receive a unique login
to our Customer Only Trade Area. This gives you access to vast
amounts of additional materials including kettle maintenance
videos, a recipe database, contact details for individual Calico
staff members, specialist training videos, and finally the ability
to place your orders for fudge mix online.
Visit www.calicocottage.co.uk/business or to enquire about
a Trade Area login, email us on info@calicocottage.co.uk
Finally, don’t forget, we rely on you selling fudge to make any
money ourselves so if we can help you in any way, we are very
motivated to do so!
Calico Cottage
Unit 2, Haddenham Business Park,
Sutton Road, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire CB6 3PT
www.facebook.com/calicocottageuk
www.twitter.com/calicocottageuk
Tel: 01353 741661 Email: info@calicocottage.co.uk Website: www.calicocottage.co.uk